ANIDOX:LAB by The Animation Workshop & Flee by Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Did you know that the Anidox Lab was involved in the R&D process for the animated documentary Flee?

Here Michelle Kranot gives us some insights into the process of working on animated documentary ideas in the early stages:

“We salute the team of FLEE for their hard work and conviction. ANIDOX are proud to be engaged in the early development of this project, when director Jonas Poher Rasmussen joined our ANIDOX:LAB. We helped him make his first teaser, and ‘matched’ him with the Animation production studio SunCreature. We also followed the process closely and consulted whenever it was useful.

We hope others feel as inspired by this film and as energized as we do – We believe that more filmmakers, artists, journalists and producers will now consider this unique marriage of animation and documentary – and that audiences become more open and curious.

Applications for ANIDOX:LAB 2022 are open until 20.4.22

Application

Advertisement

‘Flee’ by Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon-to-be husband. Winning many awards and accolades including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, this film has garnered much critical acclaim since its release in 2021.

Told to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen under an alias, we witness the life-threatening, heartbreaking journey undertaken as a child refugee from Afghanistan. The animation is interspersed with archive footage from Afghanistan, punctuating the memories with indexical images; the sequences striking a resemblance to events currently unfolding in Ukraine. This is further heightened by the plight of the refugees trying to find a way through systems to safe places, which in this story took many years. Alongside this is the sub storyline of Amin’s sexual identity and his coming of age as a displaced refugee.

Flee was initially developed as part of AniDox Lab.

https://neonrated.com/films/flee

Factual Animation Film Festival 2021

The 7^th Edition of Factual Animation Film Festival was held at Queen Mary University of London’s Hitchcock Cinema on the 16^th October 2021. The festival programme was also made available online until the 24^th October. For full details visit factualanimation.com

The programme consisted of curated screenings and a series of interviews with animation directors conducted by Holly Murtha, festival director, and Alex Widdowson, festival producer.

The Beauty of Mathematics, an interview with Sarah Gorf-Roloff

In Absentia, Interview with Adriana Monteforte

I Want To Be Bored & The Things Around Us, interview with Magda Kreps

Skeleton of A Moth, interview with Emma Kay Smith

Moosehide Slide – Interview with Dan Sokolowski

Awards

There were two awards presented at FAFF this year: Best Student Film and Best Animated Documentary Film

The award for Best Student film went to Magda Kreps for I Want To Be Board

The award for Best Film went to Laurent Leprince for Waka Huia

You can visit the FAFF website here https://factualanimation.com/

Rising of the Lusitania Festival 3, Gdansk Poland

The festival who shares the name of the first known Animated Documentary features a stellar line up of films. Their selection includes a mockumentary category and a Rising of the Pandemic category on films made about and during the pandemic.

The festival is screening on location, alongside a hybrid online/ offline conference. You can find more details here: www.animadoc.pl

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century by Nea Ehrlich

The latest book about factual animation comes from Dr Nea Ehrlich, and a quick glance at the contents page shows notably distinct areas of animated documentary that have seen less coverage, for example an entire section of the book is dedicated to other forms of animated documentary within games and VR, whilst other chapters explore in depth the definition of mixed realities. We cannot wait to get reading, the book is available to buy at Edinburgh University Press or you can access the book via ‘open access’ via this link:

https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/46536

About the book:
Confronting shifts in the status and aesthetics of the real, *Animating Truth *analyses how contemporary technoculture has transformed the relationship of animation to documentary by mapping out two parallel
trends: the increased use of animation within documentary or non-fiction contexts, and the increasingly pervasive use of non-photorealistic animation within digital media. As the virtual becomes another aspect of
our contemporary mixed reality (physical and virtual), the book aims to understand how this visual paradigm shift influences viewers, both ethically and politically, and questions the wider ramifications of this transformation in non-fiction aesthetics.